T-Mobile just introduced the Nokia Astound that will cost $80 (after a $50 rebate) when it goes on sale April 6. The smartphone has a 3.5-inch touch-screen, free turn-by-turn navigation and an 8 megapixel camera that takes 720p video. (Nokia/MCT)Zdnet reported this week that the long awaited Blackberry Playbook tablet will go on sale on April 19th at Best Buy and other retailers. This tablet looks very impressive, but it may suffer from the ailment common to most other tablet offerings, high price.
The device will need to perform well to compete with the recently released iPad 2. Early reports and reviews do make it look promising. Also, be aware that Samsung and Hewlett-Packard have new tablet models coming out soon. By the end of the year we should see an impressive variety and selection of tablets, hopefully at more attractive prices.
Amazon opened its application store for the Google Android mobile platform this week. Many believe this is an indicator that the company will soon release an Android-based tablet. This could be interesting if true as the device would certainly cannibalize sales of the Amazon Kindle e-book reader. There are many possible outcomes if Amazon does launch such a device, and they have many offerings that would probably benefit from offering an Android tablet.
Interestingly Apple has sued Amazon for using the term app store for their offering, claiming a trademark violation of the Apple App Store.
The new Verizon 4G or LTE HTC ThunderBolt phone is getting great reviews almost everywhere online these days. LTE or 4G is the high speed next generation network that is coming soon to Chattanooga. Early reviews of the phone emphasize its speed and performance, but do lament the heavy battery drain the high speed network apparently causes.